BEN KANE

I’ve always been fascinated by military fiction, from Rosemary Sutcliffe’s iconic Eagle of the Ninth to Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series and Wilbur Smith’s African sagas. Coming from a very scientific household, the craft of writing is not something I ever considered as a child. I loved animals, and my father was a veterinarian, so I thought I’d do likewise. After more than a decade in the workplace, a succession of life events – three years travelling, work in Northumberland near Hadrian’s Wall and disaffection with veterinary medicine prompted me to start writing. Although I thought of several time periods to write about, the Roman Republic/Empire was what came naturally to me.

What started as a hobby quickly became an obsession. I wasn’t happy unless I wrote every day, and for several years, I lived, breathed and dreamed about the Romans, all the while working full time as a vet. In 2006, I was fortunate enough to be signed by Charlie Viney, and the real work began! In 2007, after a lot of sweat and tears, The Forgotten Legion went on the market and was snapped up by Preface, a division of Random House, after a bidding war with 5 other publishing houses. It was published in 2008, and was the 8th highest selling debut hardback fiction work of the year. Since then, the sequel, The Silver Eagle, has been released to critical and commercial success. The last part of the trilogy, The Road to Rome, published in 2010 and was a Sunday Times number 4 bestseller. All of my subsequent novels which concern Spartacus and Hannibal have also been Sunday Times bestsellers.

A major three book contract was signed in 2016 with Orion to publish two books on the epic struggle between Rome and Greece. The first title, Clash of Empires will be published in 2018 with the sequel, Clash of Empires – The Falling Sword following in 2019. A third, untitled historical novel will appear in 2020.